Small business fears over price hikes - 'Our energy bill increased by 180%'

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One coffee shop owner has said the current cost of living crisis is making their business 'close to unsustainable'.

"It's become to the point where the energy costs, and rising costs of everything else, have just made it close to unsustainable."I don't think it's obvious to a lot of people how much energy coffee shops use."It's the cost of the good - so it's not even in your overheads, it's in your direct costs for creating a product"."We are going to have to make some changes, but it's about trying to find the balance.

"We're actually celebrating our 30th birthday this September... and this'll be our most challenging trading year to date. "It's down to the cost of a lot of things, to be honest, energy is just the most recent cost to have doubled"."On the positive side for us is that we had a very good trading year in 2020.

"A lot of businesses obviously really struggled in 2020 - but because we were an essential food shop we stayed open."So we have some money in the bank - so it's not a limitless supply of money in the bank, but we're not in any danger of closing right away. "But without Government support, and without some really good thinking around how to support small businesses, I'd say there's going to be a lot of small businesses having to make really difficult decisions this year".Share this article

 

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